2.27.2008

Don't Be Ignorant

Iz's favorite book for several months has been The Book of General Ignorance, by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. In deference to The Simpsons*, I tend to call it "The Big Book of Ignorance."

Giving Iz this book is like giving one of my brothers the keys to a beer store. Good distraction, then potential total social disaster. Iz is already a know-it-all stickler with no qualms about correcting strangers on the street. Let's just hope most people won't mind being informed that America was named after Welshman Richard Ameryk rather than Amerigo Vespucci. And it should make her teen years interesting, telling the other sci-fi geeks that the asteroid chase in The Empire Strikes Back makes no sense because asteroids usually have about 1.25 million miles between them, and her rocker buddies that the number of the Beast is actually 616, not 666.

Regardless, this book deserves a place near every toilet in the land.

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*Mali recently interrupted lunch to tell me, Ep, and Jo a rather complicated story. After a beat or two, we realized she was retelling us the King Homer segment from Treehouse of Horror III. Go third child!